Whole lotta farming

I have been to The Farm multiple times in the last couple weeks and, while I took pictures, I have been remiss in updating Farm activity. There has been quite a bit. This won't be chronological, really, but it should be reasonably comprehensive. I will start with the garlic bed. The garlic was et up with weeds, and the parsnips -- volunteers from last season's winter crops -- were ready to harvest:

Farmer Tom harvested the parsnips and gave them away. I weeded the crap out of the garlic and that bed was left looking like this:

Not sure what happens next there. Next, we move to the okra, which needed major weeding:

I weeded it, and planted seeds in the gaps. First time for okra on The Farm, so we'll see what happens.

Thwe peppers are doing well:

The carrots are doing quite well:

Kale and Swiss chard continue to produce, far outliving the expectations for these winter crops:

The peas have produced well. Last weekend, I harvested all of them, pulled the plants and took down the string trellis. This is part of the transition from cold-weather crops to summer crops:

Also harvested the last of the broccolinis, then pulled out the plants:

Same for the head lettuce and cauliflower:

The first bean bed obviously needed weeding:

So, I weeded it:

The second bean bed is doing well:

The broccolinis in back came out; the leaf lettuce in front continues to produce:

Not sure what to put in the back of this half-bed:

 Squash and zucchini are going well:

And, of course, I harvested a ton of leaf lettuce, head lettuce, Swiss chard, kale, cauliflower and broccolinis:

All of the ripping out of plants provides a great deal of material for the compost heap:

One of the things we did was put up a couple more overhead racks on the newer beds:

The racks will allow us to install overhead irrigation and, when called for, put up string trellises. Good stuff. Naturally, Jeb the Wonder Dog oversaw all of this activity from a shady spot:

 Going to The Farm tomorrow, so we'll have an update then.

I went to The Farm yesterday and damn near died

It was somewhere in the mid to upper 90s, and the heat index was 119, which I assume is really bad, because I fucking near fell out. It was hot, people.

Naturally, peppers love the heat. I don't even know what kind these are, but they are tiny and they are very hot. I assume that when then turn red, they'll be even hotter:

These guys are hot, too, and many are ready to harvest:

Still turning red with these bad boys, who are a little sweeter:

Third-generation beans are doing well:

The old peas bed needs to be weeded and hoed:

The carrots are cranking along:

Garlic bed No. 2 is doing OK:

This bed needs to be weeded an hoed:

So does this one:

This is garlic bed No. 2, which looks like shit and is hiding a secret:

The first crop of brussels sprouts is not looking good:

The first generation of beans is pretty much done. Time to pull, weed and hoe:

The second generation beans are doing fine, as are the green onions:

So, after weeding and hoeing some of the beds, looking better:

Like I said:

Harvested some beans, habaneros, garlic and -- the big surprise from Garlic Bed No. 1 -- some onions. Home Depot sold me some garlic seeds that were onions. Fuckers:

Also brought in some tomatoes:

And squash and zucchini:

The squash and zucchini bed is looking burned out, though, so this might be the last of the harvest from there:

I did a lot of weeding yesterday. It was hotter than the hinges. Mrs. Wolves came along, but she spent her time in the neighbor's pool. Not exactly a team-building exercise. More to come from my visit today.

Yeah, I went farming this weekend. It was brief.

As usual when I go to The Farm, Jeb the Wonder Dog came with me. Yeah, he had his nose out the window the entire way over:

As you may recall from last week's visit, which dealt mainly with planning -- note the snow on the ground -- the beds were full of last year's late crops:

Which, of course, were quite dead:

We decided that this weekend we would clear those out. We did:

Both sets of beds:

Alas, when we went to weed and till the ground, the soil was still frozen about 2 inches deep. So, that was pretty much it. Hoping for better activity next weekend, as the weather has been quite nice. We'll see if it stays that way -- nasty predictions for later this week. We'll see. Farming is a game of opportunity, after all.

Yes, I've been farming

I did go to The Farm last weekend (not the one that ended yesterday, the weekend before that) but I just haven't gotten around to posting about it. I also went to The Farm this most recently past weekend -- both days. Damn near killed me. But I'll get to that. First, the two-weekends-ago post.

 Naturally, Jeb the Wonder Dog went with me, poking his snout out the window as we drove to The Farm:

Turns out we've been having deer-protector problems and, as a consequence, deer problems. The motion-activated sprinklers that are supposed to be scaring off the deer apparently haven't been working, so the deer have been walking through the beds. Also, eating stuff, but I'll have more on that in another post:

On the other hand, the first crop of broccoli is doing well:

I also planted peas in the recently harvested onion bed, and watered the shit out of it. Yes, I know it just looks like dirt. Trust me, there are pea plants in there, just waiting to bust loose:

I returned to The Farm Saturday and Sunday and damn near killed myself. There was a lot of weeding and harvesting to be done of some very labor-intensive crops. The temperature was high. Both days, I busted my ass, went home, took a shower and went to bed right after cooking dinner. That sun will take it right out of you. So will drinking beer in the hot sun. But I digress.

Saturday, I had to weed the potato bed. I don't know what Farmer Tom and his family were up to this summer, but it wasn't weeding:

This is my haul of weeds from that bed:

I went home after that Herculean effort and died. Had to come back Sunday to actually harvest the potatoes. For those of you who have never wielded a potato fork, let me tell you it is hard fucking work. Put the temperature at 90-plus, and, yeah, I went home and died again. But first, I harvested a bunch of potatoes. Pretty good crop:

Probably would have been better if the weeds hadn't been allowed to take over. Oh well. I then turned my attention to the squash bed, which is done for the year. I took down the fence around the bed:

I was too old, weak and tired to pull up all the fence stakes by myself. Fortunately, Son of Farmer Tom helped:

Then I sprayed Round-up all over the damn thing, because I'll be damned if I try weeding that like I weeded the potato bed. There is a limit to how many times a person can go home and die in one week:

 There is more farming still to come. Most of what I have been doing is watering stuff because it refuses to rain around here. I also am deal with what appears to be a near-total failure of pollination of the second and third bean crops, as well as serious deer-munching on said crops. All to come in future posts. Stay tuned.